Mary Kunz Goldman is the classical music critic for The Buffalo News, the daily paper of Buffalo, N.Y. She is also the authorized biographer of the great American pianist Leonard Pennario.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Music for the New Year

I started out the New Year by playing Bach on the piano. There is something about Bach that is clean and optimistic and bracing and new and quietly, over the years, I have established this tradition for myself. That is that I sit down at the piano on New Year's Day and I play this one Bach prelude and fugue. It is in E flat. I am trying to find it on YouTube but I keep finding the wrong E flat prelude and fugue.

I just like this prelude and fugue. I love the fugue theme. Years ago I read and reviewed a book by this author Eric Altschuler. Isn't it funny, I still remember his name. It must have been 10 or 15 years ago. Anyway, he had all kinds of fun with the Bach Well-Tempered Clavier and one thing I remember, he said that the theme of this E flat fugue is one of the greatest fugue melodies in the whole work. I think he had a Top 10 and he put it in that list. He would explain the pieces and analyze them as if they were baseball games. I remember that.

I wonder where Eric Altschuler is now. I wonder if he is still studying his Bach. He called me after the review I wrote and we talked. For quite a while, as I remember! That was unusual.

His book is still for sale on Amazon. I just looked. Here it is. It is called "Bachanalia" and that is the book pictured at left.